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The equity of Esther Summerson
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Watt, Gary (2009) The equity of Esther Summerson. Law and Humanities, 3 (1). doi:doi : 10.1080/17521483.2009.11423759 ISSN 1752-1483.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17521483.2009.11423759
Abstract
Esther Summerson, the heroine of Charles Dickens' Bleak House, personifies true equity shining like the summer's sun through the legal and other institutional fogs of the novel. She personifies equity through the triumph of her substance over such formalities as physical appearance and illegitimacy of birth; and through her wise and courageous resistance to formal power - which echoes the behaviour of the biblical Queen Esther; and through the general-but-particular status that her role as narrator confers on her - which echoes the quasi-canonical status of the biblical book of Esther; and through her reforming brand of domesticity, which symbolises equity's preference for careful correction over radical demolition. Most strikingly, she exemplifies equity's virtue of moderating the opposing extremes of stasis (the state of stubborn immovability) on the one side, and displacement on the other: she stirs those who are settled and settles those who are stirred.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | K Law [Moys] > KA Jurisprudence P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Summerson, Esther (Fictitious character), Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Bleak House -- Criticism and interpretation, Courts -- Officials and employees -- In literature, Estates (Law) | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Law and Humanities | ||||||
Publisher: | Hart Publishing Ltd. | ||||||
ISSN: | 1752-1483 | ||||||
Official Date: | 2009 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 3 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
DOI: | doi : 10.1080/17521483.2009.11423759 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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